Costello, Imposters evoke enthusiasm

By Andrew Lee
Daily Bruin Contributor
[email protected]

Last Tuesday was a landmark day for music at UCLA, and it
certainly wasn’t because of The Ataris playing Westwood
Plaza.

Current Artist-in-Residence Elvis Costello came out from hiding
and performed some balls-out rock for a fawning crowd. But with the
crowd consisting predominately of 30-something Nick Hornby types,
complete with balding heads and throwback ’70s band T-shirts,
let’s hope the students of UCLA had a good excuse for missing
one of the greatest current songwriters perform his first L.A.
dance hall concert in over 20 years.

That’s not to say that the lack of young blood was a
complete surprise. Curiously, Costello is one artist who
hasn’t been rediscovered with fervor by each new generation
like Bob Dylan. As he proved Tuesday night at Grand Ackerman
Ballroom, however, he’s still got the energy and songs that
garnered him massive popularity in the ’70s.

The show started off with “45,” a dynamic song that
showcases Costello’s very best from Costello’s latest
release “When I was Cruel.” Immediately following were
two songs from “My Aim is True,” his 1977 debut album,
the latter being “Watching the Detectives,” a
reggae-tinged song that brought the audience to life when Costello
belted out his immortal lines: “Though it nearly took a
miracle to get you to stay / It only took my little fingers to blow
you away.”

For the rest of the night, Costello alternated from brand new
songs to familiar hits harking back to other early albums like
“This Year’s Model” and “Blood and
Chocolate.” While his classics garnered the most fervent
reactions, Costello’s new compositions were just as strong,
tapping into his familiarly guttural vocal style and witty lyrics.
Costello introduced “Spooky Girlfriend” as a song about
a “show business weasel who has an unhealthy interest in the
hairstyles of porn stars, and a girl who has a completely
comprehensible fascination with color-coordinated credit cards and
shoes.”

The Imposters, Costello’s new backup band, provided just
enough support to give the songs life without overpowering the main
attraction. A rhythm section featuring drummer Pete Thomas and
bassist Davey Farragher kept rockers like “No Action”
and “Pump it Up” rolling along with energy seemingly
way too high for gentlemen of their age. Keyboardist Steve Nieve,
who first played with Costello’s Attractions on his 1977
album, entertained the audience with a number of solos on his
theremin, a bizarre instrument whose pitch he manipulated by simply
waving his hands over a black box.

“I Want You” ended the third encore and two hour
show, an epic and gut-wrenching song that, at its climax, had the
four players pounding their instruments in a slow and torturous
fashion behind a sweaty and red-faced Costello belting out his
words amidst a stage awash with ominous dark blue lighting. It was
a song they seemingly knew they couldn’t top, and the band
members left the stage for the last time.

The most memorable moments of the night, however, came with the
rousing rockers and sing-along choruses of classics and new numbers
like: “High Fidelity,” “You Belong to Me,”
“Alibi” and “Tear Off Your Own Head (It’s a
Doll Revolution),” Basically, the they were the countless
times when Costello and his bandmates managed to get the crowd
moving with reckless abandon, singing along like they were all 18
years old again.